Humans have always taken what they needed from the planet’s soils, but the time has come to pay back this debt to Nature.

These words from Kyrgyz National Agrarian University rector Ryspek Nurgaziev capture well the essence of discussions at the international scientific conference on soils and food security in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Dedicated to the International Year of Soils 2015, the conference was organized by the Public Union of Soil Scientists of Kyrgyzstan, with support of FAO and in close partnership with Kyrgyz National Agrarian University which hosted the event.    

Soils experts and scientists from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan came together in the plenary session to discuss soils challenges currently faced throughout Central Asia. They also raised topics such as improving soil fertility across the region through techniques such as conservation agriculture and integrated pest management.